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The Beautiful Message of La Salette
Old French holy Card depicting the three phases of the Apparition and a panoramic view of the ShrineWhen the pilgrim, tired from the long journey, approaches the Shrine of La Salette and finally beholds it nestled in the hollow of the mountain, he immediately perceives and realizes that he has reached the mountain of contemplation. He has left behind the active valley of the Isère and the mining region of La Mure. He has climbed laboriously—as if through the trials of the Purgative Way—penetrating into an atmosphere of purer air and ever-more imposing silence. It suffices if he has ever thumbed the works of St. John of the Cross or just looked at the frontispiece, the mountain sketched by the saint to symbolize the ascent to Carmel, for he is struck with discovering this schema, which he believed entirely theoretical, in the profile of these mountains and the spiral of the winding valleys.
Here is the mountain—he is in the realm of the mountain. In other places, the mountain is a decorative element, prime matter, a substance decked with picturesque accidentals, as trees, torrents, cascades, streams, rocks. Here, none of these accessories.
A breathtaking and awe-inspiring
panorama of nature
As one climbs up, they disappear one after another, there only remain pure slopes, only summits more or less sharp. Great austerity, religious astonishment, but devoid of sadness, in this ideal region where the eye, looking at a great distance and meeting no obstacle, falls upon these surfaces sheathed in short grass, combining a tranquil sweetness to a rigorous spoliation like unto Franciscan poverty.
What is Our Attitude Toward Reconciliation?
(Editor: Fr. Jean Curtet, M.S. (1909-1993), a renowned theologian and writer, shared this article with his community in the years following Vatican II, published in the La Salette Periodical in April of 1968. We publish it in five installments, of which this is the first.)“Henceforth we no longer know Christ
according to the flesh” (2 Corinthians 5:16)
We must adopt a similar attitude towards La Salette. St. Paul did not know the Christ of history, but the Christ transfigured by the Resurrection. And, of course, it is this mystery of the Resurrection which gives meaning and value to everything in Christianity. La Salette, also, as an event of history, keeps receding more and more into the past, like a flower yielding its fruit. And in its case, too, we must enter into its mystery.St. John made this transition with reference to the Synoptics. The Christ of history now became the light which illumines every person. He will recount the meeting at Jacob's well, but as an occasion to illustrate the springing up of the water of eternal life. We need to make a similar transition with regard to the apparition of La Salette.
For many years La Salette was known and made tangible, as it were, through the impact it had on the two children, through the events which it foretold, through the extraordinary movements of people which it drew to itself and who converged on it from countries far and near, through the miraculous cures and the wondrous conversions which were the answer to faith in the apparition and so many signs from Heaven confirming the reality of Mary's visit.
Mary Said: “You Take No Heed”
Weeping Mother of La Salette by Arcabas (Jean-Marie Pirot, 1926–2018)A women once wrote: “ La Salette lives in our hearts. It is a message that is branded into my soul and torments me. . . I had an expectation that the Virgin at La Salette would have something very important to say to me.
“What do Mary's words mean for us today? I see again in my mind's eye the picture of a child dying of starvation and, like panels in a gallery, I see this world of ours with its injustices, inequalities, famines and its Third World. We discussed all these things with our young people, then with our adults, and we sought earnestly how we should respond and what we might do to help.
“At Mass we pledged to take whatever action we can. As for me, as I reflect on all these human tragedies, I can no longer bear to hear again the Beautiful Lady's reproach: “As for you, you take no heed of it.” At night I can still hear those children crying for food. Yes, we must respond, we must promise our help, and there is not a moment to lose.
“But then, when see the fine meals, the pretty rooms, the latest fashions and we overhear the young ladies' unthinking remarks, the latest gossip, the arguments among these well-to-do people, I become sick at heart. I feel like a stranger in their midst. Yet I must learn to live fully in the place where Providence has placed me, to live as a child of God.
La Salette and the Modern World
A version of the La Salette Apparition from our La Salettes in Angola, AfricaMany ago, as we mortals measure time, Heaven came to earth...September nineteenth, of the year eighteen hundred and forty-six is no unusual day in our history books; people the world over rose, ate, worked, and perhaps, prayed, much as they did every other day of their lives; and for them, the day was merely one more link in the lengthy chain that is life.
But for Maximin Giraud and Melanie Mathieu, two youthful French cowherds, that September nineteenth was destined to become the day of their hitherto singularly uneventful lives — for on that day Our Blessed Lady spoke to them. The mere recital of this noteworthy incident in God's plan would appear commonplace for its brevity.
A Woman of a Few Words
The facts as they stand are few indeed, but their import is far-reaching. Her words, as the children recorded them, spoken amid the scenic splendor of the mountain slopes of La Salette, are neither lengthy nor are they difficult to understand. In all, the “Beautiful Lady” spoke a little more than six hundred words, but the pertinent message these conveyed has given the inspiration to volumes. Like her Divine Son, who spoke little and yet said so very much, our Blessed Lady in this heavenly appearance expressed thoughts that are all the more wonderful for the few words in which they are couched.La Salette Spirituality is Ecclesial and Missionary
Editor: In this third of three articles, Fr. Charles Novel, M.S. (1912-1980), a true man of letters, with a Doctorate in Theology and in Sacred Scripture, reflects on a total of six major characteristics of the La Salette spirituality.Our spirituality must be ecclesial
A Queen and Mother and her child, stained glass gift to Pope Paul VI, Vatican MuseumsA La Salette missionary (and all those who have devotion to Our Lady of La Salette) must be imbued with the spirit and love of the Church. That is how Fr. Giraud saw it. The Virgin Reconciler of La Salette appears as prototype and figure of the Church, mandated to proclaim the message of peace to all people (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).Through the grace of La Salette, we participate, so to speak, in the mission of the apostles who were sent by Christ as ambassadors of reconciliation. When the Church authorized our foundation and approved our Constitutions, she shared her mission with us. Our mission is ecclesial.
Christ constituted the Church in a manner suited to the fulfillment of her mission. Everything in the Church—the hierarchy, the ministry of the Word, the sacraments—is at the service of humanity's reconciliation with God...
Having ascended into heaven where he mediates without ceasing on our behalf, spiritualized and Spirit-giver, Christ continues to act and to live on earth—in the Church and through her. He is busy actualizing in us the grace of reconciliation conquered by him.
Hence our vast respect for the Church and our affectionate submission to her...
The communitarian aspect of Salvation constitutes still another facet of our ecclesial spirituality. The Church is the Chosen People that God has, heirs of several millennia of Bible tradition diametrically opposed to insubmission (or disobedience). We the People with whom God, through his Christ, has contracted to the pursuit of justice...
Read more La Salette Spirituality is Ecclesial and Missionary
La Salette Spirituality is God-centered and Paschal
Editor: In this second of three articles, Fr. Charles Novel, M.S. (1912-1980), a true man of letters, with a Doctorate in Theology and in Sacred Scripture, reflects on a total of six major characteristics of the La Salette spirituality
Our spirituality must be God-centered
_-_Trinity_(Museum_der_Bildenden_Künste,_Leipzig).jpg)
Holy Trinity by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), on lime wall, Leipzig, Germany; photo: nevsepic.com.uaMary's actual, contemporary role in the reconciliation of sinners relates us, therefore, to a wider vision of faith: the charismatic insight on the History of our Reconciliation. This insight presupposes a profound knowledge of our Reconciliation's inner reality; it requires the kind of light that only biblical, patristic and theological studies can shed.
The La Salette viewpoint on Salvation History hinges on God's salvific plan of Love as described by Saint Paul in the first chapter of his letter to the Ephesians: the Father’s plan of salvation; fulfillment through Christ; inheritance through the Spirit.
Our spirituality is therefore God-centered: our primary concern is to seek God's glory. Living human beings are the glory of God, said St. Irenaeus. In our perspective, the glory of God is the reconciliation of that living human being; it is our own reconciliation and that of all our sisters and brothers. And this reconciliation is authored by God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
By the same token, Mary asks us to really care about humanity, to concern ourselves with what one could call theological anthropology. She wants us to delve into the heart of humanity whom God has created and destined to divine sonship; we are to gauge the horrendous enormity of humanity's rebellious refusal of God's love; we are asked to look with pity upon humanity's misery and downfall and to see it for what it is: the wages of sin.
Close to the Virgin Reconciler, we become conscious of our sinful state; we grow hungry for peace; we feel the pangs of a desire to be united once again with God in the bonds of religion.Read more La Salette Spirituality is God-centered and Paschal
La Salette Spirituality is Catholic and Marian
Editor: In this first of three articles, Fr. Charles Novel, M.S. (1912-1980), a true man of letters, with a Doctorate in Theology and in Sacred Scripture, reflects on a total of six major characteristics of the La Salette spiritualityThe Spirituality of La Salette must be Catholic
Our Lady of La Salette speaks with the two children (1855)We are in grave need of a... World view and of a theology of History capable of spurring us to act and of directing both our action and our life. This outlook on the World and its destiny—which is also our destiny —must be inspired by faith and translated into terms of down-to-earth life.Our vision must take on a universal dimension; its dynamism must set off a chain reaction of solid impacts on our everyday life. The principles of our spirituality must stem from a faith-stimulated view of the World and of History. What facet of truth does that vision of faith reveal?
Mary once spoke to Maximin and Melanie; now, she reaches us through the testimony of those children. The Church has declared their witnessing to be authentic. By the grace of La Salette, the Virgin Reconciler opens the eyes of our faith upon a vision of the World and of Salvation History. The grace of La Salette is dynamic: it jolts us into action, it can moreover tele-guide our apostolate and steer our religious life.
The grace of La Salette enables its beneficiary to view Salvation History in a special light: that of the History of Reconciliation between God and fallen humanity. One quickly recognizes that this is precisely the History being actualized today within the Church and by the Church.
Fr. Jean Berthier, M.S., a Saint-in-the-Making
Editor: This article was republished with the permission of the Congregation of the Holy Family, which was founded by our own Fr. Jean Berthier, M.S., who is now in the process of being named a saint by the Catholic Church. We La Salettes have just published a new book on his life, entitled “Rev. Jean Berthier, M.S. (1840-1908) – the Writer,” by Fr. Victor Hostachy, M.S., available now on Amazon.com in various forms (paperback or Kindle e-Book).His Birth and Early Years
Fr. Jean Berthier, M.S., a painting by Bro. Donald Wininski, M.S.The Founder of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Family, Father Jean Berthier, M.S., was born in Chatonnay, France on February 24,1840. As a boy he learned about the apparition of Our Lady of La Salette and his interest in Our Lady of La Salette never faded. Jean showed a desire for religious life when he was very young and prepared for the diocesan seminary by studying Latin. On October 23, 1858, at the age of 18, he entered the Major Seminary in Grenoble, France. As a deacon, he joined the Missionaries of La Salette at the mountain of La Salette on July 14,1862. Despite health issues, his strong will and trust in God helped him to arrive at his goal. On September 20,1862, at the age of 22, Jean Berthier was ordained a priest by Bishop Jacques-Marie-Achille Ginoulhiac (1853-1870).
His Early Years of Ministry
For decades Fr. Berthier enjoyed his summers at the Holy Mountain of La Salette, ministering to the visiting pilgrims. He celebrated Mass, preached, heard confessions and explained the message of Our Lady of La Salette. There were few staff members, so in addition to priestly duties, he did a variety of manual jobs to help care for the pilgrims.Mary’s Tears at La Salette
To love one means also to give that person the power to cause you to suffer. What a wound it is to the heart when love receives in return only indifference, rejection or contempt! This is true of us who love so v, little and so poorly, but it is infinitely more true of God whom St. John tells us is love personified (1 John 4:8).
A Sign of Tenderness
Mary's tears at La Salette are a sign of God's tenderness, unappreciated and scoffed at. It is a sign within our understanding: for God has always spoken to humans through humans and by means of signs and languages used by God’s people. What sign could tell us better about God's sufferings than the tears of his Mother, of her who remained standing at the foot of the Cross? What tears could best convince us of our unfaithfulness than those of the Virgin most faithful? But since we refuse to allow God into our lives and our world, She who is charged with praying unceasingly for us can do nothing more in our behalf. There remain only - as the saying goes -her eyes with which to weep. These tears of hers bring home to us the intensity of her love, but at the same time her powerlessness in the face of our refusals. That precisely is the reality we are called upon to discover.
A Famous Conversion Because of La Salette
Editor: This article was originally published in the La Salette Missionary, August, 1931, pgs. 127-128._01a.jpg)
Ernest Psichari (Sept. 27, 1883-Aug.22, 1914) was an author, religious figure and a Lieutenant in the French Army.In a private audience granted on November 18th, 1912, to His Lordship, Monsignor Maurin—at present Cardinal Archbishop of Lyons—and to his Vicar General, Monsignor J. Giray, actually Bishop of Cahors, speaking of the miracles wrought by the Blessed Virgin at La Salette, His Holiness Pope Pius X remarked that miraculous conversions are more important and more difficult than miracles of bodily cures.These miraculous conversions—or spiritual cures—seem indeed to be especially those which it has pleased the Blessed Virgin to work when invoked under the title of Our Lady of La Salette. Does it not seem that by her intercession before her Divine Son for erring souls, the Blessed Virgin herself thus wishes to justify her beautiful title of Reconciler of Sinners? A title which naturally evokes the memory of her merciful Apparition on the Mountain of La Salette on September 19, 1846.
It is a conversion of this kind—and one of the most striking—which we recount in the following lines. He who was the happy subject of this conversion has narrated it in moving terms in the course of his work: Le Voyage du Centurion (The Centurion's Journey). As often as possible, we will quote his own words.
Ernest Psichari was the grandson of the too celebrated and impious Ernest Renan (1823-1892). Brought up in ignorance of God in surroundings “Voltairean and even worse,” already at the age of twenty he was wandering about “without convictions, in the poisoned gardens of vice.” As a young officer, on his leaving the military school of St. Cyr, disgusted with everything, he began to wander about the world, finding contentment nowhere.